With the Black Lives Matter movement front and center in the news this summer, it is heartbreakingly evident we still have a great deal of work to do to heal racial issues in our society. Our students are absorbing what the media is saying about these events and will have many questions and concerns when they return to school in the fall. As school librarians, it is critical for us to prepare to address these questions and concerns by educating ourselves on the issues and ensuring we can point our teachers and students to quality resources to teach and understand the current and historic racial justice debates.
- Collection development – No matter what our student populations look like, it is imperative that we provide both mirrors and windows to all our students in our school library collections. The We Need Diverse Books organization and the Association of Children’s Librarians of Northern California have been doing great work around increasing awareness of the need for more diversity in children’s literature and have compiled many resources for choosing and reviewing diverse books. To help build your collection specifically to reflect Black Lives Matter, here are a few booklists:
- Children – While not specific to the BLM movement, this list by the San Francisco Public Library features books for young readers about the African-American experience.
- Teens – A BLM list from Chelsea Couillard-Smith, a librarian for Hennepin County (MN) Library, which was also featured on SLJ.
- All Ages – Teaching for Change has an extensive list of books about the Civil Rights movement divided by grade levels, fiction and nonfiction.
- Curated online resources – Teachers and students will most certainly be looking for quality information on teaching and researching the movement. Plan ahead and have some ready. A group of SFUSD teacher librarians did just this in response to Ferguson by creating a Black Lives Matter LibGuide last year that includes lesson plans, activities, book lists, student news sources and primary sources.
- Project-Based Learning – Begin to brainstorm inquiry-based service-learning projects that could allow students to develop their own meaningful questions around what is happening, research the issues and take steps to help make a difference. Find the connection points in the curriculum, reach out to potential guest authors, speakers and community organizations and be ready to discuss the possibilities with your teachers. Some websites to help you begin thinking about how to teach these difficult topics include Teaching Tolerance and Teaching for Change.
What are your ideas for being a resource at your school around this important topic?
Author: Cassy Lee
Cassy Lee is a middle school Teacher Librarian focused on education equity, empathy, and empowerment. She is the recipient of the 2020 AASL Roald Dahl’s Miss Honey Social Justice Award and the 2018 SLJ Champion of Student Voice. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, son, and a steady stream of foster dogs. You can find her on Twitter at @MrsLibrarianLee and at CSLA in February!
Categories: Blog Topics, Collection Development, Community/Teacher Collaboration, Professional Development, Student Engagement/ Teaching Models
As I said: “American Library Association Promotes Black Lives Matter Hate Group In Public Schools” — click my link to read that, although you can see it right here.
I am so “grateful” for this post. I know that so many students, Educators and parents have questions and want to know more about the BLM movement and we need to give them resources to let them come to their own decisions.
It also gives me a place to start.
The BLM LibGuide looks awesome! Thanks for posting that link as well as the others.
I feel like some educators/school librarians may feel apprehensive about teaching the BLM movement due to the political climate of the school or community.